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Extremely new..Most basic question


Dave S

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Right now my most prized decoration is a gemmy 3 tree light and sound show...

  OK...I said it........

 It has been in use many years..and it is suspect each year as to wheather it will work...

I have found this site in a obvious search to expand my display and continue my obsession.And I am starting now for hopefully something simple for this year and mostly next year...

   The dancing arch,s without sound seem to be a reasonable starting point....I am retired...I have time...Reasonable but limited funds...How would you guys,and gals, recommend I start?

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Start out with a lot of reading here on the forum, and take a good look at the video tutorials (link at the top of the page).

 

There are lots of discussions here about building arches.

 

That being said, I will suggest that you may be too late to do much for 2013 - although being retired can help in that regard.  Most of us here will tell you that the time to start on Christmas is a couple weeks after last year's Christmas display is taken down...  If you keep it fairly simple, you can do it starting now.  Building a few arches can be done fairly quickly, but learning the software and writing the sequences will take while.  Not trying to discourage you, just trying to be a little realistic. 

 

I wish you the best of luck and welcome to the forum.

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If you take a look at the sequence store, you can get a pretty good idea about layouts for your house and if you are able to, buy a couple. Looking at the way they do their sequences will get you moving quickly.

I recommend getting the ones you can modify. This addiction, I mean hobby, tends to get bigger every year and if you get I've you can modify then you can add your channels each year.

There are other free sequences available for download from the other users here. That will help you get going this late in the season. It's getting to be crunch time for a lot of us that were not as diligent in our work so don't be discouraged if it takes time for people to answer your questions.

I'd also recommend you buy a starter kit. It comes with everything you will need to make your lights dance. Play with the software so you can get familiar with all the tools available and watch the videos in support. They are full of information on how to use LOR.

Welcome to the insanity!

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Right now my most prized decoration is a gemmy 3 tree light and sound show...

  OK...I said it........

 It has been in use many years..and it is suspect each year as to whether it will work...

I have found this site in a obvious search to expand my display and continue my obsession.And I am starting now for hopefully something simple for this year and mostly next year...

   The dancing arch,s without sound seem to be a reasonable starting point....I am retired...I have time...Reasonable but limited funds...How would you guys,and gals, recommend I start?

depending on the budget you could go to WowLights, go with their channel config.  It will give you a decent show of 5 songs+ (depending on the budget and starter kit), controller(s), connections to PC, etc.  Like others have said, from that point you want to start January 1 with building props, adding music, and designing your layout for next season.

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I went the wow lights route it helped me a lot in time involved in writing  the sequences. if you go with the setup they program for you can still get it done this year no problem but I did spend some time to revise there sequences to fit my setup. I would say go for it and if you do not get it completed for this year you will have a jumpstart on next year. Just remember not to put to much stress on yourself doing this being new to it this year also I have been tweaking non stop just thinking I can make it better while the wife keeps saying it looks good

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If you are thinking of just adding some leaping arches, not sequenced to music, this is what I think I would do.

Build 3 10' arches with 5 strings of lights on each.  This will make up 15 channels.   Then of course you would need the LOR software and one control box.  I would probably go with a PC box just to save money but you could also get a Showtime box.  The advantage of a showtime box would be you can download a sequence into it to control the arches and not have it hooked to a computer.

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Depending on your skills, stick with getting started with only LOR equipment.  Avoid DMX and RGB ribbons and pixels until later.  Learn the basics first and keep it simple.  You'll also get more bang for the buck and easier setup if you stick with a single color.

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I'm Sure when your ready and decide on your Arch design you could get some examples from others here on how to Sequence them.

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